India Woman Fast Bowler Jhulan Goswami Retires From T20 Internationals

The 35-year old pacer has played 68 T20Is, over the course of which she picked up 56 wickets.

India’s veteran pacer – Jhulan Goswami has announced her retirement from T20 Internationals with immediate effect, as per a Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) release on Thursday, 23 August. Goswami holds the all-time record for the most number of wickets in women’s one-day internationals.

The 35-year old pacer has played 68 T20Is, over the course of which she picked up 56 wickets. Her retirement comes ahead of the ICC Women’s World T20 to be held in the Caribbean in November this year.

Of late, her lack of wickets in shortest version was coming under the scanner and her big-hitting abilities at the back end were also on the wane.

The BCCI release stated that “Goswami thanked the BCCI and her team-mates for all the love and support she garnered during her stint with the T20I team and wished them luck going forward.”

With Shikha Pandey ready to take over as pace spearhead and young guns like Puja Vastrakar and Mansi Joshi showing promise, it was time for the Bengal speedster to make way for the Gen-Next.

Goswami along with Mithali Raj are the two oldest cricketers in the current set-up, having made her debut against England in Chennai way back in 2002.

Goswami made her T20I debut in August 2006 against England in Derby and has ended her career as the third most-capped Indian player in T20Is. Her last T20I appearance was against Bangladesh in the Asia Cup final on June 10 earlier this year.

She was adjudged ‘ICC Cricketer of the Year’ for 2007 when she was at her peak.

(With PTI inputs)